Risk is that ugly four-letter word that we as project managers need to pay attention to but often look upon it like taking out the trash at home. Planning for the management of it should happen, it needs to happen…but let’s do it later. Right now let’s get started on the real work. Right? The reality is that every project you manage is much more likely to succeed if you put a decent amount of effort into the risk planning and management process – and make sure it is mapped out in your project schedule. Then, once you’ve identified risks, prioritized the risks considering “likeliness to occur” and “impact to your project”, and decided which risks are worth addressing and which ones you deem not critical enough or likely enough to occur to even worry about, then it’s time to decide your strategy on dealing with the risk list you have left.